Faculty Research 1990 - 1999

Brain spectrin: of mice and men.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1995

Keywords

Animal, Brain: em, gd, Brain-Chemistry: ph, Fetal-Development: ph, Human, Mice: ge, me, Mice-Mutant-Strains, Molecular-Sequence-Data, Molecular-Structure, Spectrin: an, ph, SUPPORT-NON-U-S-GOVT, SUPPORT-U-S-GOVT-P-H-S

First Page

593

Last Page

606

JAX Source

Brain Res Bull 1995;36(6):593-606

Grant

NS19357/NS/NINDS, NS26536/NS/NINDS

Abstract

This article reviews our current knowledge of the structure of alpha spectrins and beta spectrins in the brain, as well as their location and expression within neural tissue. We discuss the known protein interactions of brain spectrin isoforms, and then describe results that suggest an important role for spectrin (alpha SpII sigma 1/beta SpII sigma 1) in the Ca(2+)-regulated release of neurotransmitters. Evidence that supports a role for spectrin in the docking of synaptic vesicles to the presynaptic plasma membrane and as a Ca2+ sensor protein that unclamps the fusion machinery is described, along with the Casting the Line model, which summarizes the information. We finish with a discussion of the value of spectrin and ankyrin-deficient mouse models in deciphering spectrin function in neural tissue.

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